Youth boot camp opening now October

Attorney-General Jarrod Bleijie has gone back on his promise to have a youth boot camp in north Queensland operating by September.

The Government previously said the camp would be ready by this month but now says only referrals will start this month.

Mr Bleijie is today meeting the boot camp's operator, Beyond Billabong, to be briefed on two possible locations.

He says juveniles from Townsville and Cairns will have somewhere to go by October.

"Oh well certainly all the properties that were in the location list have been looked at and there's two particular properties that the provider has in store, so he's coming to brief me on those and we'll make an assessment then shortly after that," he said.

"The super boot camp in Cairns and Townsville was always going to start receiving referrals from about September this year, everything is on track.

"We've announced the successful provider, we've got the super camp provider going out looking at properties, I've got a meeting with him, so as far as we're concerned, everything's on track."

Thuringowa MP Sam Cox says he does not mind a delay to the start of the boot camp.

Mr Cox says the Cleveland Youth Detention Centre in Townsville is catering for north Queensland's youth offenders in the meantime.

"We still have places like Cleveland which is where the harsher youth sentences are happening and ... there's lots of stainless steel and barbed wire and there's no bucking bulls in there. It's where the tough stuff happens," he said.

"But the boot camp is very important, it's just as important and we'll have it up and running in no time."

Mr Cox says it is better to miss the September deadline than get it wrong.

"I just know they're out there looking but if the Attorney-General's happy to give them some extra time, that's good," he said.

"Yes it is delayed a couple of weeks but it's not going to make here nor there.

"At the end of the day we need to get the right home. If we don't get the right home we're not going to give these trials a chance."